I don't see myself as one, but if I do nothing in the face of what I see as monstrous inhumanity, then what am I?I can live with losing the "Good Fight", but I don't think I could live with not fighting it.

George, You follow in the footsteps of your patron.

ο Θεός να σε ευλογε!

I find it very interesting that almost every Greek man I know is a warrior at heart. It must be in the DNA.

This event with the Chinese woman occurred nine months after 9/11. Four months earlier the parish itself had been completely burned down by arsonists. According to the ATF, the arsonists had started the fire by pouring gasoline around the altar table. The ATF judged it to be a hate crime because most of the parishioners were immigrants from the middle east and derogatory remarks about Arabs had been spray painted on the hall. It was devastating for many of the immigrants because of the horrors they had gone through when they lost their land in Israel. They came to United States where they thought they would be safe. But even here, they discovered, there were people who hated them. Fortunately, the church communities around the parish rallied around them in support (both financial and emotional).

Hi Tamara...

I was just being a little facetious when I said "maybe she was with them". The experience we had was strikingly similar in blatantness.

I am sorry for what happened to the Palestinian visitors. America is breeding ground for all kinds of racism. People even bring their own brand to the "table".

For example....

I have had Arabs who have only been in the US for a very short time speak to me and treat me (and other blacks) with cruel racial discrimination.

An Arab owned store was boycotted in a NYC by the local community due to the fact that the store was selling pork, drug paraphanalia and unacceptable magazines. The Arab owners assumed that the people in the nieghborhood wanted these things. This was wrong. The local community was very well organized and working class and black. Also there was large very strick muslim population which was well resepcted by all the people in the area. The Muslims was shocked that muslims would expect to sell this kind of stuff to anyone not to mention other muslims and persude the matter with the Arab store owners.

They apologized. But it was too late. no body wanted to even walk by the place not to mention go in to buy. The store closed.

I am not making "light" of the matter about the Palestians; but to show how riggid people can be towards other people while they are thought of and treated like no class citizens as well. Arabs treated me cruely for no reason because I am black. And whites treat the Arabs just like they treated me because they are not white. Its a viscious cycle. Whites say horrible things about Arabs to me. They feel comfortable that I will agree with them. I always say to them not to include me in such discourse. And not to assume that I feel the way you do about Arabs.

Just because I am (or we are) treated poorly by certain people does not mean that the people who treat me (us) poorly also deserves the same treatment. That is not a civilized mindset and is un-Christ like.

I am very sorry about the situation with the Palestinian family. These people suffer more than we are allowed to know.

I was just being a little facetious when I said "maybe she was with them". The experience we had was strikingly similar in blatantness.

I am sorry for what happened to the Palestinian visitors. America is breeding ground for all kinds of racism. People even bring their own brand to the "table".

For example....

I have had Arabs who have only been in the US for a very short time speak to me and treat me (and other blacks) with cruel racial discrimination.

An Arab owned store was boycotted in a NYC by the local community due to the fact that the store was selling pork, drug paraphanalia and unacceptable magazines. The Arab owners assumed that the people in the nieghborhood wanted these things. This was wrong. The local community was very well organized and working class and black. Also there was large very strick muslim population which was well resepcted by all the people in the area. The Muslims was shocked that muslims would expect to sell this kind of stuff to anyone not to mention other muslims and persude the matter with the Arab store owners.

They apologized. But it was too late. no body wanted to even walk by the place not to mention go in to buy. The store closed.

I am not making "light" of the matter about the Palestians; but to show how riggid people can be towards other people while they are thought of and treated like no class citizens as well. Arabs treated me cruely for no reason because I am black. And whites treat the Arabs just like they treated me because they are not white. Its a viscious cycle. Whites say horrible things about Arabs to me. They feel comfortable that I will agree with them. I always say to them not to include me in such discourse. And not to assume that I feel the way you do about Arabs.

Just because I am (or we are) treated poorly by certain people does not mean that the people who treat me (us) poorly also deserves the same treatment. That is not a civilized mindset and is un-Christ like.

I am very sorry about the situation with the Palestinian family. These people suffer more than we are allowed to know.

God bless them.

God help us all.

Well Father, in this case of this parish, it wasn't Caucasian people treating Arabs poorly. It was a Chinese woman. And we have no way of knowing the race of the arsonists because no suspects were ever found. Actually, the community of parishes who showed support after the fire were by in large Caucasians who belonged to various Catholic and Protestant churches in the area. Racial prejudice is not limited to only one race.The parish that burned down has a sizeable immigrant Eritrean population too. They are an accepted and active part of this parish community.

Additional comments by the moderatorAfter several hours awaiting access back to the forum due to server problems I have reached the conclusion that the OP here was addressing self-introspection as a Christian and what it means to live in a Christ-like manner keeping His first two greatest commandments when confronted with another's and fighting one's own racial biases. As such this thread has merit. There has been one formal complaint of a breach of our Political discussion rules on this board and, after consultation, with the exception of the one post noted above (this moderator's own), I do not find any overt rule violation.

However, as I believe this topic was conceived as described above, the most recent postings are off the main topic and indeed appear to be a resuscitation of the previously locked and closed topic "Ethnicity and the Church". As I unlock this thread I ask our membership to keep the original intend of this thread in mind.Αριστοκλής

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 10:54:11 PM by Αριστοκλής »

Logged

"Religion is a neurobiological illness and Orthodoxy is its cure." - Fr. John S. Romanides

I found an interesting article with the very appropriate title of "Pride and Pejudice" on the GOA of Australia website about St. Photini Equal-to-the-Apostles. St. Photini was the Samaritan Woman who met Christ at Jacob's Well in the Gospel. The article says: "Before we understand the narrative in its fullness and its importance, first we must understand who these Samaritan people are. In Old Testament times, the Assyrian armies captured the northern Israelites and exiled them back to Assyria as trophies of their conquest of northern Israel (and at the same time- transplanted their own people into the region of Samaria). While in exile, these Israelites were forced to inter-marry with the pagan Assyrians- something that contravened the law that God had given Moses. They were also forced to adopt certain pagan Assyrian practices into the Jewish religion. When they were allowed to return to the region of Samaria, not only had the religion of their forefathers been desecrated, but also their pure Hebrew blood had been defiled by pagan blood. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Samaria (known as Samaritans) were considered by the Jews as traitors toward the faith, as well as being ritually unclean. Jews were not allowed to touch or even converse with Samaritans. Even the name Samaritan was used as a derogatory term aimed at those Jews who were shunned from society."The article goes on to discuss the meaning of Christ's encounter with her as transcending prejudice and racism and discusses this in the light of contemporary racism and prejudice in Australia.

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 09:25:21 PM by ozgeorge »

Logged

If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

Additional comments by the moderatorI have reached the conclusion that the OP here was addressing self-introspection as a Christian and what it means to live in a Christ-like manner keeping His first two greatest commandments when confronted with another's and fighting one's own racial biases. As such this tread has merit.

That's exactly what the OP was addressing.

Logged

"The Scots-Irish; Brewed in Scotland, bottled in Ireland, uncorked in America." ~Scots-Irish saying